Michael Papadakis

Trading Paint Brushes for a Magnifying Glass

An artist from an early age, Michael Papadakis has always been drawn to creating. While traveling the world, Papadakis found himself in Central Asia, high on the Pamir Plateau, where he felt so close to the sun that he could almost touch it. It was along this route called “The Silk Road” where he discarded his traditional paint brushes and pencils and picked up a magnifying glass as his prefered artist’s tool. 

Papadakis uses an array of mirrors and lenses to focus sunlight onto organic materials such as wood, paper, or stone. Heliography literally means “writing with the sun.” The term was coined by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1820 to identify the process by which he obtained his earliest photographic images. 200 years later, Papadakis is re-defining the term in which he tells a story through different forms of Sunlight. 

Interested in social awareness and creating narratives through filming the creation process, Papadakis believes that his artwork is only the end result of a greater story, the story of creation!